Police find loaded guns, ‘ammo everywhere’ in suspect’s apartment

PETERSBURG, Va. -- Petersburg Police found loaded guns and ammunition inside the apartment of a suspect arrested over the weekend for a shooting outside a night club.

About 12 hours after the victim was shot multiple times in the parking lot next to an Old Towne night club, police made their way down the hallway of an apartment building in the 300-block of N. Dunlop Street.

"We were making our down the hall towards his apartment and we observed him in the hallway, he observed us as well and he immediately ran inside his apartment and refused to answer the door," said Lt. Emanuel Chambliss with the Petersburg Police.

Police said they called for the SWAT Team because 43 year old Lawrence Edmonds would not open the door.

While they waited police said Edmonds attempted to escape out of a second floor window, dropping about 10 feet down where officers waited for him.

When officers went to search the apartment they were surprised to find what they did on the kitchen counter three firearms, said Lt. Chambliss.

The first one spotted was a Ruger AR-15.

"With a magazine fully loaded 30 rounds, the first thing I noticed it was in the fire position," Chambliss said.

And next to the rifle, officers found a .45 semi automatic handgun and a "Judge, 45 caliber pistol, fully loaded."

43-year-old Lawrence Edmonds was arrested Saturday.

Throughout the apartment officers also found hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the kitchen to the bedroom.

"We found ammo in the bedroom, in a back pack, on top of the dresser, inside the dresser drawers, he had ammo everywhere," said Lt. Chambliss.

An unloaded shotgun was also found in the bedroom.

Police said their concern isn't with the guns, but the fact all the guns in the kitchen were loaded and sitting on the counter.

"The concern was, if we would have had to breech that door with out SWAT Team, he had the high ground on us, the guns fully loaded and it was in the fire position, he would have had the drop on us," Chambliss said.

The victim, who was in surgery for about 12 hours, remains in stable condition.

The suspect, Lawrence Edmonds remains behind bars. Edmonds was charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and unlawful discharge of a firearm in a public place.

The shooting

Petersburg Police said officers were on patrol in the 20 block of Bollingbrook Street as patrons were leaving night clubs and restaurants in the area just before 2 a.m.

"While in the area multiple gun shots were heard by officers who then responded to a parking lot in the area," Lt. Chambliss said.

Police found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the lot near the Daiquiri Bar and Grill and Wabi Sabi restaurant.

Police said an officer used CPR to revive the victim before he was medflighted to VCU Medical Center in Richmond with life-threatening injuries.